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An online resource for the very best in contemporary mosaic art, thinking, and eventsMon, 28 Mar 2016 01:00:03 +0000en-UShourly1“There is no world without mosaics” – Helen Mileshttp://www.mosaicartnow.com/2015/09/there-is-no-world-without-mosaics-helen-miles/
http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2015/09/there-is-no-world-without-mosaics-helen-miles/#commentsSat, 26 Sep 2015 17:20:11 +0000http://www.mosaicartnow.com/?p=13898

Helen_Miles_David_2015

We are great fans of Helen Miles, the very fine Scottish artist who currently resides in Greece. Her classically inspired mosaics (like the portrait of her husband, David, above) charm us and her exquisite writing never fails to inspire us. If you want to know how the mosaically obsessed walk through the world, read on. We thank Miles for the opportunity to repost this article from her blog. Enjoy – Nancie

Barnacles, Scottish West Coast Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

All summer I felt bereft; longing for mosaics, pining for my studio, aching for the peace and purpose of my work. Every summer I am obliged by the tradition of nine-week-long school holidays to down my tools and go where family and heart and other people’s needs direct me. We always go to Scotland, sometimes driving through Europe, sometimes stopping in England, once striking off eastwards to Turkey or simply staying in our little hillside house on the Greek mountain of Pelion and hanging out on the beach.

Farook relaxing with a good book on the beach. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics.

There is much to appreciate about the summers. For all their broken-upness, the two days here, three days there nature of them, they allow us all to reconnect. I see old friends, spend time with my increasingly decrepid parents and visit my favourite places. But nonetheless I feel bereft because I can’t be making mosaics.

Tiled floor, Hereford Cathedral, England. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics.

Usually I compensate for the lack of mosaic time by dragging my reluctant boys to obscure (or not so obscure) mosaic sites. I tailor the summers to make sure our road trips take in mosaic places that otherwise I might never get to see. Over the years we’ve been to Aquileia, Rome, Ravenna, Venice, and even slogged across the Anatolian plains to visit Zeugma. This year there were no such opportunities. We stayed in London for two nights and I snatched a few hours to see Tessa Hunkin at work on a new project with her Hackney Mosaic Project volunteers, but other than that, the entire summer, all 63 days and counting, were entirely mosaic free.

But fortunately for me, there’s no world without mosaics. Mosaics are really nothing but the slow and deliberate accumulation of parts, the materials change, the way of achieving that accumulation changes, but essentially they all boil down to the same thing – to pattern, line, movement, form. So, bereft of mosaics, I found them everywhere. We use them to build walls, to shore up seas, to protect our cattle or our kings.

Wall. Ruined castle, Perthshire, Scotland. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

We see them in the flow of rivers, the line of hills, the shapes of plants and the markings of feathers and shells. We find patterns in the greatest of all human achievements – in mathematics, in music, in poetry, in architecture – they are essential to the way we exist. Codes, chess, mazes, maps, textiles – all, when you strip away the wrapping, are nothing more than patterns and lines. This summer, watching a performance at the Edinburgh Festival, I even saw mosaics in the choreography of the dancers’ moves – that fluid crescent, the perfect curve of energy, muscle and motion.

Sea urchin shell. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Without my own mosaics to focus on, I found my mosaic antennae constantly zinging and pinging, alerting me to real and imagined mosaics. I couldn’t stroll down a street, lie on the beach, go on a country walk, visit a museum or do any of the other myriad ordinary things that the summer entails without finding an actual mosaic or a mosaic connection. On the Sydenham High Street in London, lined with funeral parlours and fast food outlets, I looked up and found this decorating a public building:

Detail of a mosaic, Sydenham High Street, London. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Visiting an English Heritage house in Herefordshire, I was delighted to see this:

These casual, incidental mosaics like this one at an Edinburgh shop threshold, remind me that mosaics aren’t an esoteric, weird out-there kind of thing, but something that all kinds of people in all kinds of ways have sought for and appreciated from those Roman banqueteers adorning their dining floors to 19th century country gentlemen on their grand tours to our own elected councillors thinking how to brighten a dull facade.

Shop threshold, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Nature, of course, does it best.

Dandelion. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Nature is the one that gave us mosaics in the first place (a leopard’s coat, a peacock’s display, a fish’s dappled markings) and then gave us stone. When that mosaic antennae of mine was pinging about but sending no signals back, I found stone, that lovely neglected stuff, to relish in. I got up early to really look at the stones that line our favourite beach and found that once I started looking there was more and more to see:

It turns out that once you stop you can’t fail to notice that the process of life, the slow erosion of all we build and create, produces it’s own mosaics. Paint weathers in the rain, street tiles break, porcelain acquires an exquisite patina of cracks:

Nature can’t seem to help itself – there’s a constant need to break out, push up, slide in. It’s what we do when we make mosaics, fitting parts around other parts and once we see that there is no world without mosaics, we see that that’s precisely what’s going on around us:

In the process of my mosaic finding I discovered too that my brother, well into middle age and living quietly on the shores of Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast, is busy making his own version of mosaics – cutting out random quotations from the Bible and sticking them with that restless obsessive mosaic making urge, onto styrofoam balls:

‘Mosaics’ of paper. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Add in my mother’s knitting and my great grandfather’s embroidery and you can see that my mosaic thang runs deep and strong:

My great grandfather’s embroidery. Photo: Helen Miles Mosaics

Dear reader, I must confess that I was so determined to show you that there is no world without mosaics I went so far as to take a rather elegant photograph of sheep’s poo in a field in Perthshire but on the off chance that you are eating your breakfast, I thought I’d leave you with this rather more salubrious photograph of beachnut casings:

When Bill Buckingham asked me to join him and his partner, Michael Welch, in producing a magazine called Mosaic Art NOW in 2008, I had no idea that my “yes” would be the beginning of a 7-year love affair with artists from around the world.

The goal of Mosaic Art NOW (MAN) has always been to inspire, promote and publicize the work of great mosaic artists. From its beginnings as an annual magazine that sold 2,000 copies, MAN morphed into a website with over 150,000 pages accessed a year, a Newsletter with over 5,500 subscribers and a Facebook page with over 22,000 followers. Oh – and then there is all that Twitter and Pinterest stuff. Wowza.

In building MAN, I have had the great good fortune to be supported by a generous group of artists, writers and scholars. Because of them, mosaicartnow.com now has a huge and eclectic body of content that respectfully and professionally represents the best in mosaic art. Nobody got paid, except with my sincere and eternal gratitude.

Many of you supported MAN financially with annual Subscriptions and Donations via PayPal. You should know that every dime you sent felt like a giant “atta girl” and often came at times when I really needed the encouragement.

And LATICRETE – those lovely people who support mosaic artists and organizations with terrific products and crucial donations – when what the mosaic community buys from them probably constitutes just one skinteenth of their annual sales – they’ve been financially supportive of MAN as well.

You’ve probably guessed by now that the preceding was a build up to some sort of change at MAN . . . so here ‘tis.

I am going to stop creating new content for MAN. The website will live on for at least a year as will the Facebook page, but both will become more archive than periodical. I will be beefing up the Pinterest account with photos from the website and will continue to maintain MANTV on YouTube, but the Newsletter will also be no more.

It is time for me to do other things. Time to get out into the garden. Time to get out from behind the computer. Time to maybe make a few mosaics. Time to pet the ever-patient husband and doople. To everything there is a season and for me the Season of MAN is over.

If I have any regrets, it is that I have not been as successful as I would have liked in engaging the interest of influencers from the art and design worlds in our beloved medium. This is, I believe, mosaic’s greatest challenge. Just doing the work and sharing it amongst ourselves is simply not enough to create a world where great mosaic artists can receive the attention they deserve and then build the careers that will sustain them. I wish I had been a better publicist.

And then there all of those extraordinary artists whose work should be on the website and is not. Yes, their absence on the website definitely constitutes a second regret.

I expect severe withdrawals in the next few weeks, but have to admit that the idea of an inbox without 10 Google Search Alerts to wade through (do you have ANY idea of how many ways the word “mosaic” is used these days???) every morning sounds like heaven.

Be forewarned – I am not disappearing from the mosaic scene. I am still imminently available for foreign intrigue, exhibit openings with free food, challenging curating gigs or any opportunity to offer an opinion – of which I am always in great supply. A housekeeping note: if If you are one of the terrific human beings who Subscribed to MAN via PayPal, please go to that website and delete MAN from your autopay schedule.

I have no idea of how to say thank you, dear Friends of MAN, except to do just that. You have and always will have a very large chunk of my heart.

Move over, Invader. There’s a new kid in Santiago, Chile who is taking mosaic street art to a whole new level. Exploring the intersection of art and technology, Jorge Campos, who likes to be known as Pixel, shares his images of cultural heroes and riffs on art icons with the people of Santiago where they live – in their own neighborhoods.

Here is what the artist has to say about himself:

Pixel is an artist from Santiago, Chile, who started his design career when it was still hard to think that visual design will evolve towards technologies, as it prevails today. Today, the use of technology is not only an obligation, but a responsibility, as it allows us to record our history and improve our design and artistic tools.

Pixel “Eye Tracking” (2013) 150 x 150 cm

Street art has been a main inspiration in Pixel’s artistic development. For two years, he worked in Paris taking photos of the explosive art found on the streets, capturing works by great artists like Blek Le Rat, Jef Aérosol, Miss. Tic, Lézarts Biévre. More from the artist:

In Paris, he learned firsthand of the work of Space Invader who inspired him to research pixel and mosaic techniques. Subsequently, he studied the religious and decorative mosaics of Mesopotamia, Greece and Byzantium. He began to explore the use of the pixel to create simplified images that synthesized color and form to its limit. Now, he has reached a cohesion between photography, mosaic, and dominant technological tools to create his own signature technique.

Today, the artist is on a mission to make art easily accessible to the people of Santiago. He calls his installations “interventions” and believes that his mosaic images will inspire people to become engaged with art. And it appears to be working.

We asked the artist what the reaction has been to the mosaics:

At first, people think they are facing a painting. Approaching and touching, they realize they are in fact facing a mosaic. Then, they wonder if it was really hand made. They also play with distance to appreciate the work in detail, take photos, and when the image is revealed perfect and detailed on the small screens of their smartphones, they fall for it!

All of Pixel’s interventions include a plaque with a QR code that will take the viewer to his online portfolio. There, people can see how he makes the mosaics and find other works of his across the city.

Asked by the V&A’s Director and Curators to create something “playful, provocative and sincere”, Reichardt designed a full-frontal installation comprising two panels and the risers of the steps leading up to the front doors of the museum.

It was a brilliant stroke by the V&A, really. Some exhibits are promoted with banners. Others with posters. With Reichardt’s mosaics, the Disobedient Objects exhibit literally spilled out of the galleries and onto the museum’s front steps. According to Curator Catherine Flood, the final visitor figures were 417,000 making Disobedient Objects the most visited exhibition at the V&A since “Britain Can Make It” in 1946.

While many of objects inside the exhibit were artifacts, The Disobedient Mosaic Intervention was artful political activism live.

Carrie Reichardt and The Treatment Rooms Collective “History Is A Weapon” (2014)

The design of the two panels was a collaborative process that included the curators for Disobedient Objects, Gavin Grindon and Catherine Flood, each of whom selected a quote for one of the panels.

Carrie Reichardt & The Treatment Rooms “Power to the People” (2014)

Reichardt’s use of digital transfers to create custom tiles for each of her mosaics is at the core of her activist aesthetic. She blends the profane and prosaic to enormous effect in these two panels. The British pound note with the visage of the Queen fills the visor of a baton-wielding riot policeman, surveillance cameras loom and England’s ubiquitous poppies bloom. At the bottom of each panel, a “groundswell” of protest from the people; at the top energy based on the conflict below radiates outward.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo: Melanie Watts

We love Reichardt’s idea to use the risers on the steps of the museum to display some of her favorite quotes. The format immediately calls to mind how ticker tapes and thin strips of paper attached to carrier pigeons were once used to transmit urgent news about disasters, conflicts and possibilities.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

“Think for yourself – act for others” is what has driven Carrie Reichardt to take her message of art as empowerment to disenfranchised communities in Mexico, Chile, Romania and into the marginal neighborhoods of the UK. Kudos to the V&A for giving this artist and the Treatment Rooms Collective the opportunity to turn the facade of the museum into a modern day “Speakers Corner” as part of their Disobedient Objects exhibit.

In October of 2012, we were part of a lively debate at the British Association for Modern Mosaic’s annual symposium about what it would take to get contemporary mosaic art into the hallowed halls of the Art Establishment – meaning institutions very much like the venue for that meeting – the venerable Victoria and Albert Museum.

Photo: Catherine Flood, Victoria and Albert Museum

Photo: Catherine Flood, Victoria and Albert

Almost two years later, “renegade potter” and craftivist Carrie Reichardt’s two-ton mosaic protest against the death penalty, The Tiki Love Truck, literally went right through the front door AND the gift shop and then over the opus criminale mosaic floors of the V&A to become a highlight of the museum’s groundbreaking exhibit Disobedient Objects (July 20, 2014-February 1, 2015).

Disobedient Objects is “the first exhibition to explore objects of art and design from around the world that have been created by grassroots social movements as tools of social change.” Curated by Catherine Flood and Gavin Grindon, the collection of 99 objects includes Suffragette teapots, hand-sewn Chilean wall hangings commemorating missing loved ones, and life-size puppets by the radical Vermont Bread and Puppets Theater.

In 2007, Reichardt was commissioned by Walk the Plank to create mosaic The Tiki Love Truck for an art car parade in Manchester. The work’s purpose changed radically when Reichardt received word that John Joe ‘Ash’ Amador, an inmate in a Texas prison Reichardt with whom Reichardt had been corresponding with for years, was scheduled to be executed. Amador asked Reichardt to witness the event and Reichardt subsequently travelled to Texas from London bringing with her sculptor Nick Reynolds. With the approval and assistance of the family, Reynolds made a death mask of Amador.

Death mask of John Joe “Ash” Amador made by Nick Reynolds. Photo: Wanranya Jangwangkorn

Upon returning to the UK, Reichardt dedicated the Love Truck to Amador, giving the mask pride of place on the front of the work. The artist continues to advocate strongly against the death penalty and solitary confinement of prisoners in the US.

Photo: Pete Riches

Between October 31 and November 2nd, Reichardt turned the Tiki Love Truck into a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Shrine dedicated to the memory of her mother, Jill Richards, Luis Ramirez, Herman Wallace, John “Ash” Amador, and Khristian Oliver. With the disappearance of the 43 students in September in Iguala, Mexico, the shrine was given a second, more urgent focus.

Carrie Reichardt (front) Photo: Pete Riches

Photo: Pete Riches

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo: Pete Riches

As we write this article, it is Martin Luther King Day here in the US, and we are reminded of this quote:

The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.

Disobedient Objects has proven to be a great success for the V&A – blasting away at its image of being “England’s Attic” by showcasing works of great heart, creativity and ingenuity that are potent demands for change and, in the process, garnering strong critical acclaim for the effort (below). It is not surprising that Disobedient Objects is already slated for at least one additional international showing at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum October 30 2015 through February 14, 2016.

And Reichardt? Well, after getting through the front door of the V&A, she was asked by the curators to mosaic it. We’ll be back later this week with Reichardt’s award-winning Intervention.

Until then,

Nancie

UPDATE: According to Curator Catherine Flood, the final visitor figures for Disobedient Objects was 417,000 making it the most visited exhibition at the V&A since “Britain Can Make It” in 1946.

We want them all. The Leopard. The Hippo. The Bear. The Llama . . . We want the whole zoological catalogue in stone by Melissa Moliterno and Andrea Poma of Aneme Mosaico.

Animals have always been the subject of mosaics.

Lod Mosaic, Israel. Central panel. Circa 300 ac

But, Aneme Mosaico’s enchanting images were something completely new to us. Their fresh, unique approach to the subject matter immediately brought to mind the exquisite watercolor illustrations of the 1700s and 1800s.

Edward Lear “Kob Antelope” (1837) Watercolor Photo via internet

And indeed, according to the duo . . .

“Our works are based on the careful study of the materials and colors, on the the ability to synthesize ancient mosaic techniques with the zoological catalogues of the 19th century.”

“Dama-Dama” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

Moliterno (Cosenza, Italy 1988) and Poma (Parese, Italy, 1989) met while studying at the Ravenna Fine Arts Academy in Italy. They have both shown extensively, with Poma taking the prestigious Experimental Prize at GAEM 2013 for his innovative work Impressioni. We found this work to be a highlight of RavennaMosaico 2013. (Previous story on MAN here.)

Andrea Poma “Impressioni” 2013 90 x 130 cm Glass.

Andrea Pomoa “Impressioni” Detail Photo: NTMP

Their collaboration in creating these glorious critters began in 2013. In 2014, they presented this body of work as Animalario in an exhibition in Ravenna. (You will want to click twice to see the large versions of these photos.)

Llama Glama (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

“Pictures and stones, cement and blank papers are mixed, becoming a single entity. Our materials are chosen according to the shape, to their veining and to their composition. They are no longer regular tesserae, but anatomical ones; stones that become cheeks, paws, and ears.”

“Ursus Arctos” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

“Hippopotamus Amphibius” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

“Canis Lupus” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

“Loxodonta Africana” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm.

“Cavallo” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

“Diceros Bicornis” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

Yes, and just when you thought these works couldn’t get any more delightful, there is the panda.

“Ailurpoda Melanoleuca” (2014) 37.5 x 28.5 cm

Aneme Mosaico is offering these beautiful mosaics for 250Euro. We are not sure how many are left after the holidays and there are other, smaller works of birds that are equally spectacular. Please contact the artists at aneme.mosaico@gmail.com with your questions. (We should probably make it clear that MAN has no financial arrangement with Aneme Mosaico at all.)

Enjoy – Nancie

]]>http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2015/01/a-modern-mosaic-menagerie-aneme-mosaicos-zoological-studies-in-stone/feed/8A Hard-Bound Master Class by Iliya Iliev: Review of “Ornament” by Allan Puntonhttp://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/12/a-hard-bound-master-class-by-iliya-iliev-review-of-ornament-by-allan-punton/
http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/12/a-hard-bound-master-class-by-iliya-iliev-review-of-ornament-by-allan-punton/#commentsSun, 07 Dec 2014 22:49:58 +0000http://www.mosaicartnow.com/?p=13606International award-winning mosaic artist and Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Sofia, Bulgaria Ilya Iliev knows what Rembrandt, Escher, Klee and VanGogh knew about the use of geometry in composing great works of art. (see ‘The Nature, The Geometry & The Materials: Iliya Iliev“) In his latest book, Ornament, Iliev offers a master class on the topic illustrated with meticulous drawings and photographic examples of how he has designed works based on geometric principles.

Iliya Iliev “Sesif” 2010 70x120cm diptych. Stones, glass

When we learned that British mosaic artist (and fellow mosaic traveler) Allan Punton had completed a work based on what he learned from studying Ornament we asked him to write a review of the book for MAN. Punton calls the book “a masterpiece.” We agree. Ordering information is at the end of the article. Enjoy – Nancie

Iliya Iliev “Visantia”

Why did I buy this book? Because it was like going to see Bruce Springsteen live at Wembley and then deciding to buy all his albums; you become smitten by the man and his music. Well, it was the same for me with mosaic artist Iliya Iliev.

I was lucky enough to be included in a private view of Iliya’s retrospective exhibit at RavennaMosaico in October of 2013. Iliev was gracious in taking the time to explain each of his works to our group and I could see the sparkle in his eyes when he talked about his art. He is a master of the mosaic art form. So, when I found out about this new book, I had to get a copy.

This is more than a book; it is a cornucopia. This is not a mosaic projects book (hallelujah), nor a “how to cut stuff” tome (again, hallelujah). It is, instead, a masterpiece in explaining compositional form. In that regard it is unique – gloriously unique.

It is written in the first person in such a way that you have a real sense of the personal knowledge and research that Iliya has put into this discourse. It is also clear that his experience as a gifted professor has benefited the clarity of the text and illustrations.

It is a textbook that informs and enables the reader to study the approaches covered as developmental exercises. The more you study the content, the more you learn from the examples shown and the book is crammed full of tessellation studies.

The book’s scope is wide and progresses through the following topics: The Ornamental Motif and its Combinations, Linear Ornament, Surface Ornament, Rhythm Geometric Figures, Polygons and Polygon Grouping.

The introductory section is entitled “Let’s Start With Proportions” and Iliev shows an example of his work where he exploits the Golden Mean to demonstrate its impact on form (figure 8). Purely by coincidence, I had made a piece many years ago effecting the Golden Mean in its design, so I quickly felt that this book was going to be highly relevant to my personal approach to mosaic.

Geometric figures are explored in great detail within the book and Iliya explains their compositional variations very succinctly with examples of his own work – as he does with Snail of snails–Clam of clams (figure 133).

In the section on Polygon grouping, lliya discusses transformation and deformation of tesselation and refers to the work of MC Escher. To illustrate the text on this topic, Iliya includes several examples from Escher’s work such as how Escher turns the equilateral triangle into a tiling bird (figure 268).

I also had done some research on Escher’s approach to composition and created a composition drawn from an Escher sketch by casting glass elements in sand.

Allan Punton Colour Puzzle after Escher (2011) 12″ x 12″

The final section of the book includes fourteen pages of Iliev’s own artwork and he has added personal notes on each one.

I am a slow reader and an even slower learner so it took me several weeks for my first journey in absorbing the contents of this book. Inspired to apply some of the book’s concepts, I began to give some thought to a suitable place to start.

A while ago, I had set aside three tree trunk off-cuts that I thought would make for an interesting project. My initial thought had been to create a compositional form sympathetic to the shape of these wooden “shells.” But, I had yet to begin doing anything with them.

As I was reading the book, these off-cuts came to my mind. Why? Because of a key sentence in the book’s Introduction; “If we assume that a square is a blank space – a symbol of unity, inserting another square within it would lead to some diversity while respecting and even underlining the basic motif.”

So, creating a design that would sit within a wood chassis and embrace/echo the form of the chassis was a creative challenge that I set for myself. I chose transparenti dalle de verre as my material for several reasons. First, because I felt that it worked well with the theme of “Inner Light”. In addition, faceting the glass would echo the texture of the thick bark of the wood chassis. And finally, with these materials I knew I could create tesserae of a size that would work well within the tessellated pattern I had in mind. I chose to use the same tonal range for the cuts within the primary pattern so that the light generated would highlight the form without distracting from the richness of colour.

Allan Punton “Inner Light” (2014) 38 cm x 42 cm

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome of this “geometric experiment” born from studying Iliev’s Ornament. It is a long way to Sofia, Bulgaria so I am very appreciative of this hard-bound “master class” that I can refer to any time I want.

Chartres les 3Rs, the organization which produces the biennial Les Recontres des Internationales de Mosaïque de Chartres (International Mosaic Encounters in Chartres), has announced the winners of the 2014 Prix Picassiette Prizes. With its self-selecting categories of Professional, Amateur Initiés (Advanced), Amateur and Youth & Groups, the event is a marvelous mash-up that places accomplished masters next to enthusiastic newcomers in the sublimely beautiful Chapelle du Lycée Fulbert.

Photo: Stefan Wolters

This year, the Prix was supplemented by two satellite exhibits: Selected works by members of the British Association for Modern Mosaic (BAMM) and a tribute to the incomparable Ines Morigi Berti of Ravenna at Chapelle Saint-Éman which runs through January 18. Sadly, Morigi Berti, who was a revered teacher and famed mosaicist, passed away at the age of 100 on October 26th.

Ines Morigi Berti (1914 – 2014)

The Association is an extraordinarily unique organization whose 3Rs stand for Rénovar,Restaurer,Réhabiliter (Renovate, Restore, Rehabilitate). Founder Patrick Macquaire and the 3R staff are dedicated to carrying on the mosaic tradition of “The Father” of picassiette, Raymond Isidore (1900-1964) and creating an economic revival for the Chartres area. Earlier this month, Macquire spoke at BAMM’s annual Forum about the exhibition and his organization – you can see a video of his presentation here.

We thank Marquaire for providing us with the professional images of the winners seen here and send a special shout-out to the talented Stefan Wolters for his “atmospheric” photographic contributions.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Association 3R and the 18th anniversary of Les Recontres des Internationales de Mosaïque de Chartres, the jurors gave prizes to two ground-breaking mosaic artists, Giovanna Galli and Gerard Brand, for their noteworthy bodies of work and personal contributions to the development of mosaic.

]]>http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/11/prix-picassiette-2014-winners-announced/feed/1BAMM’s Mosaic of the Year 2014: Tessa Hunkin & the Hackney Mosaic Project Change A Community With Arthttp://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/11/bamms-mosaic-of-the-year-2014-tessa-hunkin-the-hackney-mosaic-project-change-a-community-with-art/
http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/11/bamms-mosaic-of-the-year-2014-tessa-hunkin-the-hackney-mosaic-project-change-a-community-with-art/#commentsFri, 07 Nov 2014 18:44:55 +0000http://www.mosaicartnow.com/?p=13503The Romans would have approved.

The British Association for Modern Mosaic (BAMM) recently announced that Tessa Hunkin and The Hackney Mosaic Project have received the Mosaic of the Year Award for a stunning body of work that encompasses two public installations in London; Shepherdess Walk and Hoxton Varieties.

(For full view of images, please click to enlarge)

“Shepherdess Walk” Full view with all panels and pavements Commissioned by Hackney Council Photo: Lillian Sizemore

The Jury, which consisted of Dr. Will Wooten, Lecturer in Roman Art at Kings College, Norma Vondee, President of BAMM, and your editor, was in total unison in the decision to shine a a spotlight on a series of works that are not only visually brilliant – they have changed lives.

Dr. Wooten: A Tour de force in the continued refinement of a modern visual vocabulary for figurative mosaic art.

Nancie Mills Pipgras: Brilliant modernization of an ancient aesthetic. Clear, concise, joy-filled imagery made by volunteers. Art that has changed a neighborhood.

Hunkin, an accomplished mosaic maker and author, acted as the designer of the projects, a role the Romans called the pictor imaginarius. Her love and appreciation for the critical design components of ancient mosaics has created a lively, modern aesthetic that delights and resonates. Hunkin’s Hoxton pups are the obvious direct descendants of the hounds of the 1st Century AD.

“Hoxton Varieites” Detail Photo courtesy of the artist

Hare Hunting 1st Century AD Photo via Wikipedia

Equally impressive to the jurors was the fact that these mosaics were all made by volunteers. The Hackney Mosaic Project is comprised of local community members and clients of Lifeline, an organization devoted to helping people recover from drug and alcohol addiction. These are mosaics made by the people for the people – and they are of astonishing quality.

Photo courtesy of the artist

“Shepherdess Walk” Detail Photo courtesy Lillian Sizemore

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

“Hoxton Varieties” Detail Photo courtesy Spitalfieldslife.com

Signatures of the makers are always included prominently in the design of the mosaics.

Photo courtesy Lillian Sizemore

Just this week, Hunkin and The Hackney Mosaic Project unveiled their most recent accomplishment – The Hackney Downs Park Pavilion. British comedian Russell Brand positively nails the spirit of the project in this impromptu dedication.

The open-air theater is a mosaic menagerie with charming bugs and beasties of all shapes and sizes.

Hackney Downs Park Theater Photo courtesy Norma Vondee

Photo courtesy Spitalfieldslife.com

Photo courtesy Spitalfieldslife.com

Tessa Hunkin Photo courtesy Spitalfieldslife.com

Another joyous, welcoming environment by Tessa Hunkin and The Hackney Mosaic Project has been added to the London landscape – thanks in great part to the Hackney Council which has funded and promoted the projects. What lackluster space will these mighty mosaic collaborators transform next?

]]>http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/11/bamms-mosaic-of-the-year-2014-tessa-hunkin-the-hackney-mosaic-project-change-a-community-with-art/feed/3Creating a New Identity for Mosaic: The GAEM Prize 2013http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/09/creating-a-new-identity-for-mosaic-the-gaem-prize-2013/
http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2014/09/creating-a-new-identity-for-mosaic-the-gaem-prize-2013/#commentsFri, 26 Sep 2014 16:04:31 +0000http://www.mosaicartnow.com/?p=13430Even as Ravenna Italy is the eternal steward of mosaic’s Byzantine past, it is also the incubator for the art form’s dynamic future.

This is no more evident than in the Young Artists and Mosaic (GAEM) competition, a biennial contest hosted by the Art Museum of the City of Ravenna (MAR) in conjunction with the international mosaic festival, RavennaMosaico. Invited artists under the age of 40 are asked to create works that “should deal with the constitutive, formal & poetic language of mosaic.” (MAN article on 2011 GAEM here.)

This is where the very nature of mosaic is poked, prodded, and, if successful, expanded. In 2013, this included the use of nails and felt, an audience-participatory build-your-own-ceramic hamburger and a luscious video of a man and woman painting tesserae on one another – imagine those Byzantine icons coming alive. Even in the crowded traffic-jam of Notte d’Oro last October, we were mesmerized by many of the works and quite honestly flumoxed by others.

Takako Hirai (Japan) won the Traditional Technique Award for her absolutely stunning Vene which appeared to be the construction, destruction, and reassembly of an organic shape that seemed ready to depart from the wall at any second.

Takako Hirai “Vene” 2013 150 x 150 cm. Marble, mortar. Photo: NTMP

Takako Hirai “Vene” 2013 detail Photo: NTMP

Andrea Poma (Italy) took the Experimental Prize for his brilliant Impressioni – a workwhich turned the mosaic component of “interstice” on its ear. Poma used an etched piece of glass to project the shadow of spaces between tesserae onto a wall – as opposed to those shadowy spaces being created by the indentations in a wall covered in mosaic.

Andrea Poma “Impressioni” 2013 90 x 130 cm Glass. Photo courtesy MAR

Andrea Poma “Impressioni” Detail Photo: NTMP

These are not your nonna’s mosaics – to be sure. They are surprisingly cerebral, engaging and beautiful. But . . . are these musings on an ancient, time-consuming, historically pedantic art form relevant today? Or, as Exhibit Curator Linda Kniffitz puts it:

“Does mosaic still possess an autonomous, expressive power outside of the confines of Ravenna’s strong identity as a custodian of this ancient and highly symbolic art?”

What follows are the thoughtful and illuminating Exhibition catalogue essays by Curator Kniffitz, who is also the Director of the Center for International Documentation of Mosaic at MAR, and her co-curator for the 2013 GAEM, Daniele Torcellini, art critic and professor at the Academy of Fine Art Ravenna and Genoa. They offer knowledgeable, passionate responses to the questions above and in the process touch on art history, criticism, current art world trends, and the nature of art vs craft — all within the context of the glorious possibilities that mosaic has to offer. This is heady stuff for mosaic makers and nerds alike. Take your time and enjoy! – Nancie

Finding an Identity for Mosaic – Linda Kniffitz

When we initiated the GAEM competition in 2011, our intent was to stimulate a discourse on contemporary art in relation to mosaic and in doing so, to create a moment of comparison between makers from different schools and countries. In 2013, we received another set of very positive contributions in terms of both the richness of the visions proposed and the international provenance of the young artists.

But why indeed should we dedicate a competition to a technique that appears to be so complex and slow compared to the current trends in the visual arts that no longer envisages linearity and narration, but instead reward circularity, contamination and the use of different means of expression?

Does mosaic still possess an autonomous expressive power outside of the confines of Ravenna’s strong identity as a custodian of this ancient and highly symbolic art?

In its beginnings, mosaic was associated with the strong political purposes and economic investments (carefully chosen imagery, precious materials, highly specialized artisans, ) that forged it into a supremely stately instrument. In the last decades of the 19th century, it was rediscovered for its inherently symbolic character in an anti-Impressionist and anti-Naturalist function. The young art critic George Aurier, in championing the acceptance of Symbolism, spurred the revival of medieval visual art forms like mosaic and mural decoration.

In the 30s, the Futurist painter Gino Severini (whose name is now synonymous with modern mosaic) extolled the virtues of mosaic not for its value as a surface covering, but for its extraordinary capacity to express a synthesis – to condense an entire meaning into a single stylized, highly representative sign.

The Exposition of Contemporary Mosaics of 1959 in Ravenna organized by mosaic author and historian Giuseppi Bovini signaled the beginning of a multi-decade long discussion of mosaic and its place as an art form. In the 1990s, mosaic’s “right to be” within the contemporary artistic landscape was championed by Italian art critic, painter and philosopher Gillo Dorfles who initially defined it as a “super modern medium of expression.” In the end, however, he unfortunately came to look at mosaic solely within the context of artistic “design-object”, a phrase which smacks of refined craft.

In the twenty-first century, the time has come to circumvent all of these deliberations and endow mosaic with an identity – a term out of fashion, perhaps, but still useful. Mosaic needs an identity that must be directed and defined – squeezed for all its worth in order to extract its meaning and possible new directions. Mosaic possesses visual characteristics which capture attention because they are not accessible with a single glance; in order to really appreciate a mosaic, it is necessary to not only explore the perceived image created in the medium, but the relational properties of the individual pieces that compose the image.

In looking for an identity for mosaic, it is also necessary to clear the field of the production of many famous contemporary artists who may utilize certain elements of mosaic like fragmentation and the recomposition of elements in the construction of an image, but have not consciously chosen to create a mosaic. English art philosopher and author David Davies states that it is not possible to appreciate art in a purely perceptive way disassociated from any contextual knowledge. This is especially important if the implementation is mosaic. An artist is obviously free to express an inspiration in whatever technique he wishes thus affirming his autonomy. But, if he decides to use a technique like mosaic, he chooses an approach that has some specific characteristics that drive the work such as the synthesis and simplification of the sign, the fragmentation and recomposition of constituent elements.

All of these characteristics of mosaic can be expressed in many forms; can depart from the use of inert materials, can embrace installations and even video art. A shadow projected onto a wall from a sheet of etched glass offers the shapes of shimmering tiles. Drops of silicone, each laden with its own microstory, executes a larger narrative in the course of the tesserae. The installation of lights in a dark room provokes the same awe that grasped ancient visitors to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.

Mosaïzm “Gallaxiam” 2013 Detail Photo courtesy MAR

From a different perspective, the unconventional use of mosaic tiles to create a table of fast food that transforms the surface-observer into a product developing-maker.

These are all examples of a centuries-long journey begun with enamels, mortars and scaffolding; mosaic reinventing itself in shapes and instruments always new; it would be ill-advised to attempt an inventory.

Critical Issues – Daniele Torcellini

How could I handle a critical text on mosaic works in Ravenna in 2013? The subject of the discourse is inherently difficult.

The mosaic. Poised between ancient glories, romanticism and modernisms that reopened a road, a contemporaneity discontinuous but conceptually expanding. Even the place is not immune to difficulties. Ravenna. The privileged location; sensitive, yes, a natural observatory. But, it obscures a hazard; a codification of mosaic that does not represent all the possibilities of the mosaic. And then, broadening the field of vision, a centre emerges clearly unresolved. the mosaic, or rather, the works that are done in mosaic by those who make mosaics, or even some of an extreme derivation, choices, are almost lacking a critical approach in a systematic, recognized code.

Except for a few, and even good, isolated voices, the absence is felt of a trend in which my text will be received, making it primed for the likeminded or hardened against ideas not shared. There is no lack of theory – Filiberto Menna in The Criticism of Criticism, 1980, would be a good starting point – but of critical practice. A debate that allows collecting ideas, proposals, suggestions – that takes stock of the situation, that contextualizes, that defines the playing field, that interprets and evaluates and asks itself about its role.

Laura Carraro “Breath” 2013 Detail Photo: NTMP

To break the ice, I would like to emphasize how in this contemporary world – wherein technical boundaries are now weak, where things overrun into each other without discrimination, the admixtures kept under watch by the critics and the markets – the choice to oxidize one’s expressive aspirations around an idea – fixed, self-limiting, of dubious association as it is considered – and often wrongly – that the mosaic appears both brave (a dip back into the tank of liquid contemporaneity as a springboard for something that is not old-school and not even vintage), and not very significant in terms of the results achieved (“today you can say anything any way” is the opinion of some). But, it is a choice, that of the mosaic, which in the end appears beyond the distinctions between the liberal arts and mechanical arts – artistic techniques and decorative techniques – with all the related hierarchies of values. A visual, aesthetic and expressive and perhaps even scientific search for meaning, can be made with mosaic as with any other medium or combination of media.

One the role of the medium, even in its relation mostly to physics – of the environment in which a phenomenon plays out – my reflection would find a stopping point. The medium determines the result; it circumscribes the possibilities, insinuates itself under the skin of the message (it is the message, as Marshall McLuhan suggested, adding that the content of a medium is another medium).

Matilda Tracewska “Untitled” detail Photo: NTMP

And mosaic as a medium – an artistic medium – has specific characteristics that define it clearly, that trace a story and articulate a closeness, that, after all, allows moving well, more or less easily, inside them, generating waste, deviance, obsessions that are the key to reading a present and active vision. So – Hamlet’s question is raised – is it necessary that the text take a turn to a “critique of the mosaic” tout court? No. I would say not. I would try to avoid a “critique of the mosaic”. I would prefer to remain in the area of a critique of visual art, however, that knows how to direct its attention to what is created in mosaic, recovering in the same medium the parameters which are the basis of discourse.

But, this way I find myself in a flash adopting an approach of medium specificity, of an old-fashioned modernist? In debt to the views of Clement Greenberg? An approach pre-postmedial? That’s not done. I could also frame the multiple experiences that today revolve around the mosaic in the conceptual category far more fresh in coinage of metamodernism – recklessly running the risk that it appears little more than a banner with a dusting of novelty – insubstantial. So, the two theorists of the metamodernism movement, Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, lucidly surmise the present on the pages of metamodernism.com: “The metamodern structure of feeling evokes an oscillation between a modern desire for sense and a postmodern doubt about the sense of it all, between a modern sincerity and a postmodern irony [...] between control and commons and craftsmanship and conceptualism and pragmatism and utopianism. Indeed, metamodernism is an oscillation.”

The frame and methodology defined, my personal inclinations, oriented in the direction for the sense, postmodernly uncertain, of sight, and thereabout, for truth, I have already had occasion to express myself, and I would finally take over. The themes of light and colour, but in their more symbolic and les scientific meanings. The relationship with optical art, in an investigation of the infinite possibilities of repetition in modular structures. Thus, the aesthetics of the movement – already in the ekphrasisof early Christian and Byzantine mosaics – from the point of view of those who are regard, consequently, of what is regarded. And, I would also put on the plate, trying to avoid any simplistic terms, those attitudes and those procedures called “mosaic” that the contemporary visual culture, throughout the twentieth century, witness and saw spread – already clearly suggested by Renato Barilli in his reading of the method of George Seurat. From the mosaic screens of the first colour photographs to screens of pixels and in between the works of artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Gerhard Richter, and Thomas Ruff.

I would not ignore also the most critical perspectives and conceptual practice of appropriation, citation and translation of the messages of others from Sherrie Levine to Vik Muniz and around which the mosaic has fought in battles with uncertain outcomes.

Vic Muniz “Vic, 2 Years Old, Album.” 2014 via designmilk.com

But what, finally, are the specificities of the mosaic as a medium today? Some hypotheses. Fragmenting to give meaning. Decomposing to recompose, leaving in sight the signs of the process. The allure of seeing through and the charm of seeing a texture, a grid – even as theorised by Rosalind Krauss – more or less regular or intricate, dense or sparse. A proximal view and a distal view. Seeing the surface and the representation, seeing the surface generate a representation. Seeing yourself see.

PS: September 20 through November 9th 2014, MAR is hosting another Young Artists and Mosaic exhibit “Eccentric Mosaic” with 26 invited artists including many seen above. This exhibit is being shown in conjunction with a solo exhibit by Toyoharu Kii, “Whites & Blue” and the entrants in the city’s recent Visual Mosaic: Ravenna Video Contest. More info here.